Upper East Side Had NYC's Most Home Sales In 2020: Study

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Despite having some of the steepest drops in home sale prices of any neighborhood last year, the Upper East Side still recorded the most total sales of any New York City neighborhood, according to a new study.

The Upper East Side saw 1,755 property transactions in 2020, according to the report released Tuesday by the real estate website PropertyClub.

That's more than any other neighborhood — and it doesn't even include Lenox Hill and Carnegie Hill, which the study treated as separate. Lenox Hill had 429 sales in 2020 while Carnegie Hill had 201, ranking them sixth and 17th, respectively, by their number of transactions.

The study also looked at the most expensive neighborhoods last year, based on median home sale price. By that metric, the Upper East Side, Lenox Hill and Carnegie Hill all ranked in the top 20, but trailed areas like NoHo, which led the way with a $3.2 million median sale price.

Those findings come despite widespread declines in home sale prices around Manhattan during the coronavirus pandemic — especially on the Upper East Side.

Another study, released Monday by RealtyHop, found that the Upper East Side and Lenox Hill-Roosevelt Island had two of the most price drops of any New York City neighborhood in December, trailing only Turtle Bay-Midtown East.

There is a simple explanation for those seemingly contradictory facts: the Upper East Side is a big neighborhood with a large population, making for lots of sales every year, said PropertyClub spokesperson Dan Alexandrescu.

Still, the number of sales on the Upper East Side declined sharply this year: a 20 percent drop, down from 2,200 sales in 2019.

Use the map below to view price drops on the Upper East Side in December 2020: